Israel Allows Journalists to Tour Ofer Prison

The foreign press corps was invited to tour Ofer Prison on Sunday. Ofer is the main detention center for Palestinians and the only Israeli prison in the West Bank.

It was the first time ever that such a visit took place. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Public Security, which oversees prisons, said the decision to invite journalists came in response to a spate of bad press in recent months. Palestinian prisoners have increasingly been turning to hunger strikes to protest their incarcerations. The death earlier this month of a Palestinian security prisoner of cancer set off protests in the West Bank and allegations that Israel prison authorities had been negligent in providing medical care. It also appeared to be an attempt by Israel to get out ahead of any negative publicity and protests that may be planned for Palestinian Prisoners Day on April 17.

Charles Levison for The Wall Street Journal

Ofer Prison in the West Bank.

The unusual decision to bring dozens of foreign journalists into the prison is an indication that Israel is concerned about the situation in the West Bank, where popular discontent and low-grade unrest is on the rise. Though Palestinians and Israelis alike insist a third intifada is unlikely, the fact that the conversation is taking place with growing frequency is telling.

Ofer Prison is the most notorious jail for Palestinians. It was opened in 1988 a year after the outbreak of the first intifada. It was closed in 1995 as part of the Oslo Peace process. It was reopened in 2002 once the second intifada kicked into high gear. It sits near the Qalandiya Checkpoint, along controversial Highway 443, the second Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway that cuts through the West Bank and was, until recently, closed to Palestinians.

Prison officials said their goal was to show journalists that Israel gives prisoners first rate treatment. This is an account of what they had to say and show to journalists. There was a slick power point slide show, and presentations by the Warden, a senior officer from the Israeli Prison Service, and a Ministry of Justice prisons inspector.

“Prisoners get full dental,” Naftali Smuelowitz, a senior officer in the Israeli Prisons Service, noted. “They get the best medical care in Israel.”

They have access to a canteen with “over 1,600 items” to choose from. “One thing they like to buy is a spice called sage, which the Arabs believe is good for the stomach,” said Mr. Smuelowitz.

Ministry of Justice prisons inspector Yifat Ravah, listed off the myriad ways in which life for prisoners has improved over the years. Toilets and showers were once placed side by side, not every prisoner was given a bed of his own, and lighting was not always sufficient. No longer, she said.

Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups have raised concerns at times about treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, but generally speaking prison conditions are not the top priority for rights groups, who are more concerned about the dual military controlled legal system that Palestinians are processed through, than prison conditions. Prisoner hunger strikes have generally been about protesting detention without trial, not the quality of prison life.

“Sometimes they complain about the occupation, but when it’s that there is nothing I can do,” Ms. Ravah said. “I can check their conditions but I cannot change the Middle East.”

The Prison’s warden and 25 year prison system veteran Yaacov Shalom said: “The biggest complaints we get are about wanting a larger selection of fruits in the canteen, or more than five types of shoes to pick from.”

When Israelis feel their democratic values, or their heavy handedness in military operations are under attack, one common defense mechanism is to say that the U.S. is worse. So, for example, when excessive force was alleged during past military operations in Gaza, Israeli officials and military officers often compared their military tactics to U.S. Marines’ tactics in Fallujah, arguing that Israel was far more careful. So too on Sunday, Smuelowitz pointed out that Ofer Prison is run by civilians in police blue, not soldiers in military green, as you find at Guantanamo. Ofer was long run by the military, but was handed over to the prisons service in 2006.

Most Palestinians in Israeli prisons are “security prisoners”, meaning they were detained in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. An ordinary Palestinian car thief could find himself in Israeli prison classified as a criminal, or be turned over the Palestinian Authority. Nearly all security prisoners are Palestinians, but not all Palestinian prisoners are security prisoners.

Once inside prison, “security prisoners” enjoy different rights than criminals. The main differences, Israeli prison official said, concerned visitation rights and phone privileges. Security prisoners are allowed visits by just three immediate family members plus children under eight. Visits are allowed once every two weeks for 45 minutes. Visits take place separated by glass, except for the last ten minutes when physical contact is allowed. These restrictions don’t exist for criminals. Security prisoners are not allowed to use the phone. Ordinary criminals are.

Mr. Smuelovitz said the additional restrictions were necessary because of logistical concerns. Given the complicated paperwork involved in getting Palestinians through checkpoints, allowing more visits by more people, would present a logistical challenge, he said. He gave no explanation for the other disparities.

“To come through the borders, it’s a security process, it’s very complicated,” he said.

Warden Yaacov Shalom put it rather bluntly: “Legally, Israeli law does not apply here,” he said. He did note that “99% of the laws that apply to the Israeli system pertain to this system as well.”

One journalist noted that Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin was allowed a conjugal visit even though he should have been considered a security prisoner. “That was the court’s decision, it wasn’t our decision,” Mr. Smuelowitz said.

Mr. Shalom, the warden, also addressed hunger strikes. “It is forbidden not to eat,” he said. “They must eat. If they don’t want to eat it’s a violation. It’s in the prison regulations.”

The punishment for refusing a meal is 24 hours lock down in your cell, he said. Though Mr. Shalom alleged that many of the hunger strikers he’s dealt with aren’t so serious about it. He said they refuse their official meals, but then snack clandestinely off their private food supplies.

“It’s not exactly a hunger strike in the literal definition,” he said. “In the cells they have a lot of food from canteens.”

Many Palestinian hunger strikers and their supporters certainly dispute the warden’s charge.

There was the usual dose of Israeli PR bungling. During his initial presentation the warden assured journalists they’d have ample opportunities to speak with prisoners during the cell block tour. But when interviews dragged on beyond a couple of minutes, or journalists began speaking with prisoners other than the proscribed prisoners, they were cut short by prison officials, irking some journalists present.

“You are her to see the conditions, not to make a press conference,” the warden said when confronted. “You are speaking too much to people. This is not the purpose of this. You were told no interviews.”